Mathia'es Struggle Book 1
by JawsOnYou67
Summary: On a dead world, Mathias must face his own daemons in the form of his corrupted breathern. He does though, receive help from an unlikely source.


Book 1 of Mathais'es Struggle  
Steel Doom

Chapter 1 First day

"We have been over this planet for about a week now, Techmarine, what has the Machine Spirit told you of the  
Auspex* scan of the planet". Asked a large man clad in red armor.

"Brother Mathias, I received a message from the Machine Spirit last night, out of the original 75 billion Emperor fearing souls that were on the planet seven days ago, only 5 life signs remain. From these coordinates of the life signs, there is one in each of the main cities. They appear to be in the  
center of these cities". Techmarine David, a senior member of the Blood Raven's Macanius division was on a mission given  
to him personally by their Chapter Master to recover sacred artifacts of the Blood Ravens. An imperial excavation team  
about a month discovered theses artifacts, then the planet went dark. The planet is Omega Four, it resided in the Alpha  
Sector which is in the Haleos Region of the Imperium.

"We will be sending down drop-pods with my squad and a Land-Raider, Redeemer class, a Dreadnaught will be send do to assist incase we run into any problems.A squad of Assault Terminators will be my support with a detachment of Assault Marines". Replied  
Brother Mathias, sergeant of a Tactical Squad of Space Marines.

"Last mission I was on was when my squad was sent to assist the besieged world of Forge World Graia from an Ork Waaagh and later from a Chaos invasion", explained Mathias. Brother Mathais'es squad consisted of 8 Tactical Space Marines, one had a Plasma Pistol, two with flamers, and one with a  
Multi-Melta. Space Marines, the finest soldiers the Imperium can provide, they were genetically engineered men who were  
outfitted with the best weapons and armor that could be crafted. They lived centuries and can do best 100 men in combat,  
they are more than mortal, they are steel and they are doom.

"Won't you be coming with us Brother", without looking up from the screen, Brother Mathias already knew that the Force Commander had walked onto the Command Deck.

"No, I will be needed up here incase we come across any unexpected incidences should arise. I will have troops on the ground within  
minutes of trouble, but this is just a small scouting force, if we discover hostiles then we will be pulling out, do I make  
myself clear. We can't afford any losses during this expedition". The intercom on the ship flickered to life as the  
Champlain's voice came over it.

"Get your men together in the main hanger so we can start performing a weapon and system's  
check on your squad's armor and weapons sergeant. We will then begin the prayer. You will be heading planted side as soon  
as you are finished". Commanded the Chaplain over he intercom of the ship.

* * *

Chapter 2 – Planet Drop

"We are his wrath wrapped in steel" started the Chaplain as the prayer took full course. "We are protected as we  
protect, we will not fail, we will not falter, we go to do his will as he protects those who reside within the Imperium.  
Knowledge is Power!" shouted the Chaplain,

"And We Shall Guard it Well!" answered the Blood Raven squads that kneeled in front of the Chaplain in side of the prayer hall. "Now brothers board your drop pods and be ready for what ever comes, let no corruption taint your minds for the Emperor is with us in all this". Commanded the Chaplain to the squads kneeled  
around him. The Chaplain was clad in the ceremonial space black armor like all other Chaplians within the Adeptus Astartes  
chapters. He stands 9 ft tall and for his helmet, it was covered in what looked like to be a skull*. He wielded a great  
krozen, which shaped into a great golden eagle for its head; he carried a plasma pistol at his side, and a Codex  
Astarties* in his left Brother Mathias and his squad entered the drop-pod he heard the sound of adamant plating  
hitting steel. He looked over to see the Dreadnaught slowly moving towards its own drop-pod. The skull represents an  
undying loyalty to the Emperor in his undying state.

The Codex Astartes is the doctrine of the Space Marine Chapters, governing all aspects of Chapter organization and  
battlefield thought of the brother marine, a champion, wounded in battle but refusing to die, placed within  
the armored shell of the Dreadnaught to continue his service. This was a prime example of the phrase, "Even in Death I  
serve", he had heard numerous times from other battle brothers.

"Brother Thane, can you hear me?" Mathias voxed through to his entombed Brother within the Dreadnaught. In a raspy voice that sounded like a wind blown desert brother Thane responded.

"Yes…Brother…I…Can…Hear…You." Just then Commander Alton voxed over the hanger deck to the squads assembled  
there.

"Look to your weapons and armor then get into your drop-pods. After Mathias and his squad checked their ammunition  
storages, blessed their armor with protective incense lit by the Chaplain, and readied their secondary weapons, Mathias's  
squad entered the drop-pod and got into their respective seats.

Mathias quickly voxed to the Battle Barge's main deck the activation code to the servitor that was managing the  
locks on their drop-pod. " Servitor 317-AB, Pod Drop sequence 854-3942-Delta." With that the bay doors opened below their  
drop-pod and the tethers on the drop-pod blasted off. Mathias felt the boom as the tethers disconnected from the drop-pod  
and it entered orbit around Omega Four. As it thundered down towards the planet, the drop-pod became super heated from the  
atmosphere. At once Mathias and his squad's armor started pumping stabilizers into their system to let them cope with the  
increase in tempeture. At the same time as the stabilizers were being injected, Mathias and his squad's sound-cancellers  
clicked on to help filter out any back ground noise while each marine in turn chanted their own battle rhyme.

While each rhyme may have been different for each marine they all ended in the same words, "Knowledge is Power, Guard it Well." As  
the drop-pods descended towards the planet the cities lights began to become brighter and brighter with each passing  
second, almost like a beckon. The only problem is they did not know what this beckon was for or whom it was for, that was  
what Mathias and his squad was there to find out.

* * *

Chapter 4 – Encounter

For anyone one who wasn't on the drop-pods or the Battle Barge which was keeping low orbit in space, the incoming  
drop-pods may have looked like two meteorites heading towards the planet. As they crashed, Brother Thane's drop-pod veered  
off course and crashed some 6 miles from where Mathias's had crashed. As Mathias shook his head from the force of the  
impact, he issued commands to the on board servitor. "Open drop-pod doors and rotate heavy-bolter turret."

As the drop-pod doors opened, Mathias took a look around the dry and desolate valley that their drop-pods had fallen into. Just then  
the Thunderhawk bearing the Land-Raider landed beside their drop-pod and deposited its contents onto the ground. As he  
looked over, Mathias heard a crackling sound in his ear and instinctively knew that he was going to receive a vox  
communication, a few seconds later he heard the voice of the pilot in the Thunderhawk.

"I am returning to the Battle Barge, Solace of Augustus brothers, may the Emperor's light be ever with you". Mathias voxed back as the Thunderhawk took  
off and began its ascension towards the Battle Barge hovering in orbit, "and you to brother". As the Thunderhawk banked away Mathias and his squad climbed into the Land Raider. It was the standard red, with the Blood Raven's insignia. It sported twin quad-bolters, which put it into the class of Land Raider Crusader. As Mathias entered into the armored shell he voxed to the driver, "let us be on our way, we need to meet up with Brother Thane". As the  
squad began to move out, they noticed that there were many abandoned vehicles scattered along the road ways, not so much as  
crashed as they were just stopped and just left to rust. They moved into a patch of ground that had once held in the grip  
of the planet that once held a massive forest.

Recent events at the Eye of Terror had left the planet drained of all its resources. What is the Eye of Terror, was a question asked to Mathias by a recently indocturened initiate into the chapter. The Eye of Terror is a large dimensional rift that had been created thousands of years before the Imperium and  
our Emperor had come into being. It was there that the remnants of the Horus Heresy fled after their failed siege of Holy  
Terra, and it is there that the Bastered! Abbadon the Despoiler would later lead his 14 Black Crusades into the Imperium  
after crowning himself Warmaster, after Horus. He has been beaten back each time he reared him top knoted head. An occurring joke through the chapter  
though was calling his the Fail-Badden, the Armless.

"Sargent, about twenty clicks from our present location is where Brother Thane's Drop-pod landed", voxed the land raider driver. Within 30 mins they spotted Thane in his iron coffin, patrolling his drop pod's crash site. As Mathias neared Thane the giant walking coffin turned towards Mathias and began to  
hail him.

"Strange…noises…came…from…out…side…the…hull…before…the…bay…doors…opened…. I…discovered…claw…marks…along…the…wall" oxed Thane. As Mathias lifted up the half-ton plate, it revealed the long, shallow claw marks that raked the side of the drop-pod.

"Jackson, I want you one point, find out in which direction is the nearest city", asked Mathias as he placed the opened section of the drop-pod onto the ground.

"It will be done as you requested" replied Jackson.

As the squad moved out, the newest recruit, Migel asked Mathias a few questions concerning his past experiences, his kill  
count, his years in service, and how many worlds had he liberated from Xeno and Hertical hands.

"Well Migel, I began my service to the Emperor when I was just 15 years old. Since then I have fought along side my brother marines for the past  
300 years. I have fought against the trickterous Eldar, the brutish Orks, the ever hungry Tyranids, and even our own kind  
in the forms of twisted beings that now service the Ruinous Powers". Being his first mission with Mathias'es squad, he had  
yet to be privy to knowledge that is hidden from the general public of the Imperium. Just then Force Commander Alton voxed  
to Mathias from aboard the Battle Barge.

"Sargent I need for you to wrap this operation up, I have just received word from our sanctioned Librarian that a Warp Storm has begun to form on the outskirts of this system and is head for this planet". Just as soon as Mathias relayed the Force Commander's message to the rest of his squad, Migel asked what a Warp Storm was. Mathias relied with the same thing he was given.

"The common analogy used to describe Warpspace compares the Warp to a vast sea of energy, which is subject to constant movement, currents, undertows, etc. Although with its own reality, Warp and real space do bear a relationship as dimensions parallel to each other. The fact they share this relationship allows a  
Warp-capable craft to enter the Warp, carried for a time along the Warp flows, until reemerging into real space a distance  
away from its starting point. The common metaphor used for Warp-jumping compares the Warp to a fast flowing stream. Its  
motionless banks represent real space. A leaf dropped into the water upstream will be carried along by the currents. This  
is a useful metaphor in understanding Warpspace, although the Warp is far more complex in its movements than a linear  
stream. The Warp moves in endlessly unpredictable and convoluted patterns.

Just as Mathias ended his explanation, his scout reported back and found a city. As the squad met up and entered  
the city it was Mathias who noticed something was not right. Then he saw it, the mark, plastered all over the windows and  
doors, the EIGHT POINTED STAR of the Ruinous Powers.

"BACK, BACK, BACK"! shouted Mathias to his squad. Mathias voxed to the Battle Barge that was still orbiting in space. "Alton, we need that drop-ship back down here now!"

"What's happening down there Sargent".

Commander, we have come in contact with the enemy".

"Well who is it!" "Commander it's the Ruinous Powers, it's the mark of the Chaos Gods"!

"Worry not brother, my Thunderhawk is descending towards the outside of the city" voxed the pilot. That was when the screeching started. They came in droves, down the street, through windows, and pouring out of ally ways. Thane saw them coming first and opened fire with his Auto-Cannon, the shells sizzling through  
the air before compacting with the bodies of some of the creatures. They exploded into a mist of green and rained shrapnel  
and bone fragments into some of the other creatures.

Even with the hail of Auto-Cannon shells flying through the air, they did not stop coming. Mathias and his squad opened fire next; his marines who carried holy flamers poured forth blessed fire from tanks which contained twice blessed oil into the oncoming horde. Hundreds were incinerated within seconds, then  
Mathias himself added to the deadly barrage of projectiles, hefting his plasma pistol up, he fired pin-point shots which  
atomized the heads of a few dozen creatures before it over heated. His second in command lifted his Multi-Melta and fired  
it at a nearby building when the creatures came to close. It dissolved who sections of the apartment building before it  
came tumbling down on top of the creatures, creating a barricade between Mathias's squad and the creatures.  
Just then he heard the all too familiar sounds of Thunderhawk engines an looked up to see their transport land  
outside of the city.

That was when the creatures began to climb over the rubble. As the first creatures walked over the  
rubble they were riddled with bullet holes from the Land-Raider's Quad Bolters. The squad ran towards the Thunderhawk and  
allowed Thane to board inside first and then the Land-Raider attached to the bottom of the Thunderhawk. As Mathias's squad  
entered the Thunderhawk and Mathias was just about to board, the ground caved in under him and he fell. Before he fell to  
far he voxed to his squad.

"This is Mathias, sergeant of the fourth company, I am sending a last ditch message to all who can hear. Chaos has been found on Omega Four, it must be cleansed of the Taint. I want my squad to try and hail an Inquisitorial extermination battle fleet. Cleanse this …" This was when Mathias hit the ground and began to lose the  
feeling in his head. His last sight was of the Thunderhawk banking up towards the Battle Barge before blacking out.

* * *

Hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it.


End file.
